Falling for you, literally
by LemonPeaves
Summary: Max is late for his first day of work and to top it off it's raining but he doesn't mind because the wet bus and the reckless driver means he meets somebody he doesn't mind catching. A Zax one-shot written from a tumblr post that was so cute I couldn't ignore.
This is my first Zax fic and I so enjoyed writing it! I'm kind of new to the Casualty fandom so please please say hey, I'm on twitter, evyfrances! I hope you enjoy it's so so short but I found this cute little story on Tumblr and I just knew that I had to write Zax around it! Now on to the story and I hope you have a great day!

Falling for you, literally

It was Max's first day at his new job and he was already 5 minutes late. Not that it bothered him, he was always late, the panic that he saw in others brought on my their own lateness was almost mind boggling to him. Why panic when you can't control something? Was one late morning going to really affect the rest of your life? Are you going to be sitting there, in your most comfortable arm chair at 80 years old, looking back on your life and thinking, "Remember that one morning I was late for work? That one morning when it was cold and rainy and the bus didn't turn up on time." He certainly hoped that bigger things would happen for him, some great love that made the years fly over, some big happy event to remember, a wife, children, grandchildren, not a soggy, overfull bus that was late one grey Monday morning.

All around him he could see the occupants of the bus taping their feet and checking their watches. Huffing and puffing and complaining to each other about how bad their day already was. Most where moaning about the time, or the weather, though Max had to admit that that one was bugging him the most. He didn't mind the rain, not a bit, he had been known to through a few moves in the way of a rain dance in order to avoid camping trips with his mates. Camping trips that involved nature and bugs and aclohol most of the time. This type of rain though he didn't like, if there was an anti-rain dance he would be doing it right down the aisle of the bus. Huge splashes of brown rain was pelting the windows of the bus and he could hear the bus driver cursing out each and every single drop. The windscreen wipers were going about 1000 miles an hour across the glass but the rest of the bus had no chance of getting a peak out the window. Some people were pressing their noses right up against the panes in an attempt to work out their destination and how far they were to their stop, they certainly didn't want to walk further than they had to.

He joined them in trying to peer out of the window though he was lucky enough (though lucky wasn't the word and he was just waiting for the day when he could afford his own car) that he got the bus every morning and knew the route well. He could see nothing but rain and scratched glass and he wished that he had stolen one of Robyn's umberella's on his way out, though the brightly coloured animal print brollies would have no doubt embarressed him today he was willing to risk the embarressment just to stay dry. He was noticing now that nearly everyone else on the bus had remembered their umberellas and where holding them out and away from them in attempt to not get wet even out of the rain. The effect of this caught Max as something that was quite beautiful. 30 or so umberella's standing up on their ends, the water making it's way down the length and filtering out slowly so that it made a thin little stream right down the aisle of the bus. 30 tiny streams all running towards the front of the bus, 30 streams that would soon collide with his shoe as he stood behind the drivers cab. He stared at the water as he pressed the bell to get off. He was now 10 minutes late and hoping that his boss would see his drowned rat state and let him off without a coperate verbal lashing.

He noticed others on the bus starting to stand so he stepped further into the aisle to make sure he was the first one off, he hoped he could run from the bus stand to the hospital, both the avoid the rain and to avoid that telling off. A little way up the bus it looked like another passenger was having the same idea as she struggled to move off her seat with two bags and the biggest umberella Max had ever seen. Her designer looking coat was drenched and her short hair was damp and starting to curl at the ends. Max looked away in fear of making her more mad than she seemed already if he was caught staring. She tight purple dress and ridiculously high shoes screamed "never travelled in a bus before", he wondered where her more than likely convertable sports car was.

Out of the mainly rain free windscreen he could see his stop coming up and held on to the bright yellow pole that was vaguely sticky but essential when one wished to remain upright when the bus stopped. He could see the bus driver turn the wheel slightly to pull up against the path and just so happened to turn back, to look back up the aisle of the bus. Two or three people were out of their seats, sharing the same stop as him, but the fancy woman with the fancy umberella and fancier shoes was before them. She looked like she was in control, her handbag over her shoulder, her other bag (probably a work bag of some kind) over her arm, straps resting in the crock of her elbow, her umberella held in her hand. Looking as composed as he had ever seen her, all two minutes of seeing her that was, he could see her being quite the professional at whatever it was she did. He could see people working under her, carrying out her orders no questions asked, he could see people looking up to her. At this moment, he was staring and she had noticed and she was giving him a look that he couldn't decipher, definitely not a smile but close, probing, near invasive, eyes the deepest and richest brown he had ever seen sweeping over him. And he had to look away because he didn't want to stare so he was looking at his shoes. And the water, the tiny streams of rain that had made the bus look like a boat punctured by tiny holes has began pooling around his trainers. He wriggled his toes and sure enough his sock squelched inside his shoe.

There was a lot of water on the aisle now that the umberella's had been moved, disturbed and it was wetting the black floor of the bus in patches, wet, dry, wet, dry, and you really couldn't step from dry patch to dry patch without getting caught by the puddles forming. So when the bus driver pulled on his brake all of a sudden, right next to the bus stand, catching the pavement as he did so, the whole bus got jostled around. Max, who had mananged to keep a tight grip on the pole. just had time to look back at the woman before got thrown forward, slipping on the water sending her stumbling towards him fast. Without thinking he turned fully towards the back of the bus and held his arms out, catching her before she landed face down on the wet floor of the bus. The bus had stopped and everyone, including the driver had turned to look at them. Max smiled awkwardly at the beautiful stranger in his arms and said the first thing that came into him head.

"I think you just fell for me."

The whole bus was silent and the woman blinked up at him from her position still in his arms. Nobody moved and nobody spoke and the only thing they could hear was the thumps on the still closed bus doors as the bus driver ignored them to see what happened next on his bus. This was the most dramatic thing to happen all year. Max's cheeks began to burn red as he realised what he had said. The stupidest thing he could ever have said. No, "Are you alright?", straight in there with a pick up line, and a bad pick up line at that...

And he knew he should say something, anything, but before he could the entire bus, driver and all, started to applaud, he wasn't sure whether it was because he had caught her and because of the line but they were all clapping and smiling and even the the too-cool-for-school 17 year old lads at the back were whistling and whooping. He heard giggling and looked down, he realised he had not yet let go of the woman and that she too was pink cheeked. He released her immediately.

"I'm so sorry." He mumbled.

She shook her head.

"It's me who should be sorry." She said with a smile.

He bent down to retrieve her umbrella that had gone flying out of her hand in her desperate attempt to hold on to something as she fell. She took it from him as the doors of the bus opened and the wet people started filtering in. He was about to speak again but the other passengers that needed to get off the bus were almost literally pushing them out. Her smile turned into a shy one as she was herded out of the bus first and was soon lost to the violent downpour outside. He stood inside the bus, looking out of the doors, unable to understand how she went from being in her arms to being completely gone, lost in the rain, without him. He hadn't noticed her hadn't left the bus or that the crowd had disappeared into their seats and he was quite alone until the bus driver spoke to him gruffly.

"Hey lover boy, are you getting off or staying on?" He said.

"Er, getting off, thank you."

He stepped off the bus and was immediately soaked through from head to toe by the falling rain. He pulled the hood over his head that was attached to his hoodie and began to walk in the direction of the hospital. As he walked he replayed the whole incident in his head, unknown to him that the woman he had held in his arms had been Dr Zoe Hanna and that one day she would be in his arms again, as his Wife.


End file.
